Advice on Standards conversion.

[Sir_Loin]

Hi all

Im in PAL land and have been given an NTSC video to convert. I had assumed that my pro SVHS (PAL) decks would handle this easily, but it turns out that when combined with the ADVC 110 converters, that the colour is stripped from the vision.

I have played with the menu settings on the vhs players changing the playback to 4.43 or something similar, and have even changed the tabs on the canopus boxes, and whilst i can get a stable picture when capturing through Premiere, it is only black and white. Even hooking up a display to the output of the canopus box is colourless. The problem is the box is looking for a dedicated NTSC signal.

So my question is, should i purchase a dedicated NTSC from the USA and ship it over for these sorts of things ( which is not many in the last 2 years ) or purchase another capture device that is capable to converting a converted playback signal?

My capture process is based around Mac infrastructure and i have no PC machines.

Thanks for your advice

[DB83]

Well covered in the forums.

NTSC video plays in PAL machines since the machine internally altered the colour carrier. But the machine outputs a quasi-pal format known as PAL60 which an ADVC can not handle since it only deals with pure PAL and PURE NTSC.

I believe that a Haupaugge usb stick can correctly deal with PAL60 and some later Easy/Ezcap ones.

[usually_quiet]

Unfortunately, the Hauppauge USB Live 2 doesn't come with OS X drivers, and it is not on the supported list for EchoFX VideoGlide capture software, which provides OS X drivers for a number of USB capture devices that don't come with any.

Apparently the Elgato Video Capture can capture PAL 60 when manually configured for that type of signal: https://help.elgato.com/customer/portal/articles/1323404-windows-bad-video-quality-wit...ers-pal-secam-

[DB83]

My bad. I practically ignored the line about 'no PC Machines'

These things are tricky enough to get right with a PC.

But rather than seek a NTSC machine from the states - shipping alone could be enormous - why not look for a multi-standard one in Oz.

[JVRaines]

I had a tape from an Australian pro broadcaster that would not give me color no matter how I configured the ADVC110 and the multistandard VCR. VCR-->PAL and ADVC110-->PAL = no color. VCR-->NTSC and ADVC110-->NTSC = no color. It was quite frustrating and I never found out exactly what was the problem.

[jagabo]

You could use a PAL/NTSC converting VCR like the old Samsung SV5000. They can play PAL and NTSC tapes and output a true PAL or NTSC signal, whichever you choose. The conversion quality isn't great though. You can do better with the right NTSC equipment and a software conversion -- if you now what you're doing.

[hech54]

I had a tape from an Australian pro broadcaster that would not give me color no matter how I configured the ADVC110 and the multistandard VCR. VCR-->PAL and ADVC110-->PAL = no color. VCR-->NTSC and ADVC110-->NTSC = no color. It was quite frustrating and I never found out exactly what was the problem.

All PAL VCRs are "multi standard".....what you need is a much more expensive, specifically designed "converting" VCR.

[JVRaines]

It was a Panasonic AG-W1 "'converting' VCR."

[DB83]

I know I used the wording 'multi standard'. But its a wee bit confusing IMO to class simple PAL vcrs that can playback NTSC tapes as this.

Maybe a more appropriate term is 'multi system'. A quick look at fleabay turned up the following.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xmu...m+vcr&_sacat=0

As you see, they do not come cheap

This is a potential alternative

http://www.keene.co.uk/cyp-adc660-digital-multi-standards-convertor-output-to-pal.html

Also available on fleabay

Note that the other unit this co.sells does not support Pal60 input

[Sir_Loin]

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

I think it would be cheapest if i bought an s-vhs player or similar from ebay usa and had that sent over and then switich over the advc from PAL to NTSC and capture in Premiere as NTSC video.

Whilst the elgato looks inviting and an effective alternative, capturing to h264 does not persuade me, especially if in the future i need to then go to DVD.

The standards converter boxes are too expensive when you convert to au$$ie.

[Sir_Loin]

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

I think it would be cheapest if i bought an s-vhs player or similar from ebay usa and had that sent over and then switich over the advc from PAL to NTSC and capture in Premiere as NTSC video.

Whilst the elgato looks inviting and an effective alternative, capturing to h264 does not persuade me, especially if in the future i need to then go to DVD.

The standards converter boxes are too expensive when you convert to au$$ie.

[dellsam34]

I had a tape from an Australian pro broadcaster that would not give me color no matter how I configured the ADVC110 and the multistandard VCR. VCR-->PAL and ADVC110-->PAL = no color. VCR-->NTSC and ADVC110-->NTSC = no color. It was quite frustrating and I never found out exactly what was the problem.

All PAL VCRs are "multi standard".....what you need is a much more expensive, specifically designed "converting" VCR.

No, Not all PAL VCR's are multi standard, only the ones that have a designation 525/625 or Multistandard on the front panel and they are capable of accepting 120V/220V sources, In other words they do PAL/NTSC/SECAM independently with no conversion in between, Some may do conversion between standards as a convenience if the TV is not Multistandard, a VCR with PAL/PAL60 only is not a multistandard VCR, Most of the VCR's sold to the middle east market are PAL60 but they are not multistandard.

[dellsam34]

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

I think it would be cheapest if i bought an s-vhs player or similar from ebay usa and had that sent over and then switich over the advc from PAL to NTSC and capture in Premiere as NTSC video.

Whilst the elgato looks inviting and an effective alternative, capturing to h264 does not persuade me, especially if in the future i need to then go to DVD.

The standards converter boxes are too expensive when you convert to au$$ie.

Converting from DV to DVD is even worse, DV is a lossy format, DVD is on the way out, it might be a good idea to capture to h264 with a non DV capture device if you don't want to deal with the hassle of capturing losseless and convert later to useable format. The losseless files are huge and take a lot of HDD storage space.

A good S-VHS VCR can cost over $300 and shipping is almost half of that.

[DB83]

^^ There are two schools of thought in these forums. Those that hate DV (seems that most of that opinion comes from the other side of the pond - maybe the NTSC signal plays a part in that) and those, like myself, who do not have such problems.

I have captured in DV for years and have produced good quality dvds from that.

If the OP wants to create a dvd then that is his prerogative. It matters not what anyone else's opinion is.

[dellsam34]

^^ There are two schools of thought in these forums. Those that hate DV (seems that most of that opinion comes from the other side of the pond - maybe the NTSC signal plays a part in that) and those, like myself, who do not have such problems.

I have captured in DV for years and have produced good quality dvds from that.

If the OP wants to create a dvd then that is his prerogative. It matters not what anyone else's opinion is.

DV camcorders were great when it comes to recording the footage from the lens, It's just converting an analog tape to DV is not usually a great idea, I did it though few years ago when the HDD storage was prohibitive and capturing to compressed MPEG2 didn't look great, now that we're talking TB's I recaptured all my tapes just because the difference in quality matters to me and I don't have that many.

[solarfox]

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

I think it would be cheapest if i bought an s-vhs player or similar from ebay usa and had that sent over and then switich over the advc from PAL to NTSC and capture in Premiere as NTSC video.

Whilst the elgato looks inviting and an effective alternative, capturing to h264 does not persuade me, especially if in the future i need to then go to DVD.

The standards converter boxes are too expensive when you convert to au$$ie.

Another inexpensive option, if you just have the one tape to convert and you don't anticipate needing to do this again any time soon, would be to get someone here in NTSC-land who already has the necessary hardware to do the capture for you.

Feel free to contact me via PM if you'd be interested in going that route.